UPDATE: Power Restored to 4,776 Customers in Urbandale; Energy Substation Repaired

Power went out across most of Urbandale west of 86th Street at 9 this morning, said Urbandale Police Officer Jeff Casey, and was out for roughly 40 minutes.

"Mid-American lost a substation. We're on our emergency generator now," he said earlier. The police station and the city office complex are southwest of 86th and Douglas Avenue.

Casey said public works crews put out rolling four-way stop signs at major intersections until the power came on, but at 9:30 a.m. "traffic is moving pretty well. People are pretty good about stopping and taking their turn."

While 86th Street seemed to be the dividing line, both the and had power and were operating as normal.

Janine Bauer with the library said the lights didn't even flicker there. Patrons were browsing the stacks and checking out materials as normal.

Traditions Child Care Center III at 3802 92nd Drive, Kristy Harvey, a cook at the center said the power went out at 9 a.m. according to the clock on her stove and came back on at 9:37 a.m.

"I went out to see how wide spread it was," she said. The center is just north of Douglas Avenue. She said she could see traffic lights to the west were off, but the lights and 86th and Douglas were on.

The children went outside to play and the center has plenty of windows and lots of flashlights, so the outage was not a problem, she said.

The outage's general boundaries were the Paragon Office complex on Meredith Drive on the northwest, and 127th Street on the west. The farthest east addresses affected were at 80th Street and Douglas Avenue.  Parts of Clive south of Hickman Road were affected near Northwest 90th Street, said MidAmerican Energy spokeswoman Ann Thelen.

A total of 4,776 customers lost power, according to Thelen. The outage was caused by the failure of a part in a substation.

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